Career Development
Prof. Dr. Douwe D. Breimer (1943) is Full Professor of Pharmacology since 1975. He was Rector Magnificus of Leiden University from Febr. 2001 till Febr. 2007; from 2005 onwards he also was President of Leiden University. He was Director of Research of the academic research institute Leiden/Amsterdam Center for Drug Research from 1991 – 2000 and Chairman of the Center for Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences from 1984 – 1991. Before he was chairman of the department of pharmacology of the Faculty of Pharmacy at Leiden University.

Education and Research
He studied pharmacy at the University of Groningen (1962 – 1970) and he obtained his PhD in pharmacology cum laude at the University of Nijmegen (1974). His research is in the area of pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, drug metabolism and drug delivery, using in vitro and animal models, as well as investigations in humans (healthy volunteers and specific patient populations). He is the (co)-author of more than 500 scientific publications and he was the supervisor of more than 50 PhD-students. He has been a member of the editorial board of numerous scientific journals.

Scientific and Royal Distinctions
He received several prestigious scientific distinctions, among which are honorary doctorates from the University of Uppsala, the University of Gent, the Semmelweis University in Boedapest, the University of Navarra in Pamplona, the Hoshi University in Tokyo, the University of London and the University of Montreal.

He is a life member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Arts and Sciences (he chaired its Section of Medicine from 1996 – 1999), Foreign Associate Member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences U.S.A., Corresponding Member of the Académie Nationale de Pharmacie in Paris, Corresponding Member of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium, a Fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists and a Fellow of the American College of Clinical Pharmacology.

In 2000 he was appointed Knight in the Order of the Dutch Lion and in 2007 Officer in the Order of Oranje Nassau (distinctions ordered by HM Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands).

Societal Contributions and Positions
He is the founder of the Center for Human Drug Research in Leiden (1986), which is a research foundation aiming at studies on new medicines in healthy subjects and specific patient populations (the Center currently employs more than 100 persons). He is the co-founder of Leiden Advanced Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics (LAP&P), a Leiden based company performing data analysis studies (currently employs about 15 persons). He is also co-founder of the European League of Research Universities (LERU), of the European Federation for Pharmaceutical Sciences (EUFEPS), and of ULLA, a European consortium in pharmaceutical sciences for graduate studies. He served as president or vice-president of these organizations.

He was vice-president of the Dutch Organization of Scientific Research (N.W.O), the major research funding organization in the Netherlands, from 1996 – 2000. He has served on the scientific advisory boards of a number of pharmaceutical companies in Europe and in the U.S. He currently is chairman of the Board of Directors of Life Sciences Partners in Amsterdam, a venture capital company, and a member of the scientific advisory boards of Octoplus and of Pharming, both in Leiden. He is also a member of the supervisory board of the Technical University Delft and of the governing body of University College Cork.

From 2003 – 2006 he was a member of the National Innovation Platform, chaired by the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, and a member of several sub-committees of the Platform.

Curiosa
On the occasion of his retirement as Rector Magnificus and President of Leiden University an asteroid was named after him (10980 Breimer; see NASA website) as well as a recently discovered rare orchid (Bulbophyllum Breimerianum; see Blumea 52, pp. 1-3, 2007). On that occasion also the book “Knowledge in Ferment: Dilemmas in Science, Scholarship and Society” was published (Leiden University Press, 2007).